Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2458 – 5 Tips to Better Video Meetings

9/22/2020

#1 – Start with the end in mind. As Stephen Covey wrote years ago “start with the end in mind”. Being clear on what you want people to LEAVE the meeting with, is core to identifying topics which need to be covered, what those topics will focus on, as well as what’s critical for success.

#2 – Have shared agreements about being on-camera and using (or not using) mute. There are several different types of meetings we may host and being clear on what the level of interaction is, is key. Because one Zoom room (or Teams room) looks like another, clarify what people can expect.

#3 – Consider activating video backgrounds. If people’s systems are fast enough, consider the video backgrounds which will work to block out extraneous backgrounds. While green screens can ensure that the background doesn’t make you lose your fingers, or that the glasses on the top of your head don’t fade out, you can also get small portable green screens which fit on the back of your chair.

#4 – Use all the tools available. If you have to determine the focus of your conversation, consider how a poll or annotation might support you. If you have a large group, use breakouts to move into smaller discussion pods.

#5 – Track agreements as you go. Whether one person acts as a rapporteur (note taker) OR you capture things on the screen, capture agreements as you go. Note also that there are now several apps which integrate into the virtual space for transcription – such as the Otter.ai integration with Zoom and other elements.

Finally, as a bonus, consider your lighting. Being able to be seen automatically builds trust. Make sure that your lighting source is in front of you – windows work well.

What is going to help your next video meeting stand out?

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2452 – 8 Layers of Remote Work – Part 2

9/16/2020

Earlier this month in the September 2020 Remote Pathways podcast community call, I shared the 8 Layers of Remote Work. These are nuanced areas which can be important to learn more about as it relates to your colleagues, stakeholders and work.

In yesterday’s Teams365 blog post, I covered the first four of eight layers of remote work – Digital, Decisions, Delegation and Distractions.

Today’s post is going to explore the final four layers – Design, Dialogue, Do and Depth.

Let’s look at each one of these in turn:

Design – Design skills are increasingly needed by remote professionals of all kinds, given that the way we present our information and ideas may be even more visual and graphical. Likewise, in the remote space it may be likely that you are designing more meetings and programming and presentations. We will be looking at the elements of exceptional virtual design tomorrow, September 17, at the one-day Stand Out Virtually Studio Day Masterclass. Learn more and join us here.

Dialogue – Talking at people is not communication. With collaboration being an essential, and overlooked, skillset in the remote space, dialogue is critical for success and partnering. The word Dialogue comes from the ancient Greek world of dialogus – which means two way. Dialogue is a two-way conversation. With many remote professionals feeling like they are constantly being communicated to, but not being talked with, fostering a culture of dialogue is critical. This may mean earmarking certain calls for discussion as well as focusing more on using breakouts and other key strategic areas.

Do – The 7th layer of remote work is simple. DO. Get things done. There’s not a lot of time or space for procrastination in the remote space. If you create and lead programs, what can you do to build in more time for people to get things DONE during your time together? Will they pay you to do things for them?

Depth – The final layer is Depth. As broad as the remote working space is, it is important to have depth in terms of your relationships, levels of trust, connection and clarity around your goals and results. Spending time going deep around agreements, processes, and how you are going to operate is also important.

Be sure to check out the September 1st Remote Pathways Podcast Community Call – you can find it here.

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2450 - Effective Virtual Conversations 167: Stories

9/14/2020

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip is STORIES. Stories create an important part of any virtual conversation. It’s often through our stories that we bring examples and learning to life.

As a writer myself, I come from a long line of storytellers. My grandmother’s obituary referred to her as an oral historian, and earlier this year my cousins and I were taken back in time when we heard her voice sharing history as part of a library event. She lived a full life and passed away in 1998, at the age of 98. We always remarked how cool it would be to be a century baby.

While I’ve published 5 non-fiction business books, it’s only been in recent years that I’ve dabbled in non-fiction writing. In fact, the Digital Dozen™ of the Remote Pathways series is part of a whole new series of adventures I explore in the virtual, remote and digital space. Stay tuned for more updates on these bodies of work….I hope to have one or more new books under this banner out in 2021. For now, you can listen into the Remote Pathways podcast here.

As I thought about what would be useful to share in terms of stories as it relates to the virtual realm, I thought it would be useful to go back to the basics. What are the core elements of stories?

Your dictionary.com indicates that stories are comprised of these essential elements:

Plot
Character
Setting
Theme
Point of View
Tone

Check out their article here.

While you might not be writing an entire book, it can be useful to think about these elements in terms of:

Plot – What are the main points and milestones you want to cover and reinforce?
Character – Who are the players? Are there some concepts you can bring to life with real-time stories?
Setting – What is the environment? What is the context? What’s important to note or focus on?
Theme – What is the overarching theme of the presentation or conversation? There may be several happening at any time and pointing to these can help to “tie things together”.
Point of View – What are the different perspectives at play?
Tone – What is the tone? This is often communicated through the colors we use, the font and images. Recently in the Stand Out Virtually Challenge I hosted, a lot of coaches, leaders and presenters were intrigued by learning more about the use of color and thought about how more intentional they could be with images.

What is important for you to note in your upcoming presentations? You might consider working through each of these questions as you pull together your next virtual conversation. It’s even more important given that each one of our locations, and related context, is different.

Let us know what you are focusing on and what you are doing to connect in with these essential elements - plot, character, setting, theme, point of view, and tone.

This is a topic we’ll be exploring later this week at the Stand Out Virtually one day Masterclass. Join us to deepen your skills and widen your toolbox around virtual conversations. Grab one of the remaining spots – we’ll be kicking off at 9:30 am ET on Thursday September 17th, wrapping up at 3:30 pm ET. My goal is for you to leave with a presentation or a module drafted out.

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2443 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 166: Mix It Up

9/7/2020

Engagement is key for virtual conversations. Unfortunately, a lot of poor presentation skills have translated over to the remote space. Even if you are not a great presenter, you can create a memorable call, by mixing it up. What does that mean? It means:

Varying the pace every 7-10 minutes with a pace change or adjustment
Using a variety of approaches – presentation, dialogue in a bigger group, discussion in smaller groups
Using a variety of media – video, text, photos
Remembering that we don’t learn when we are “talked at” by a presenter. We learn when we can put things into practice, and also discuss the topic with others

Many of the platforms which are available (Teams, Zoom etc) have a variety of tools available which aren’t always used. Consider what you can do to activate:

BREAKOUTS
ANNOTATION
POLLS

We’ll be exploring this and a variety of other topics at my upcoming one-day Stand Out Virtually Masterclass on September 17th. Learn more about the day and reserve your spot to join us!

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th virtually for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! Studio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out! ENVISION. DESIGN. CONNECT.

TEAMS365 #2438 –6 Tips for Better Video Meetings – And 8 Questions To Ask Every Time

9/2/2020

Inefficient meetings have simply transposed themselves over to the virtual space in recent months. Before you step into what is often the busiest part of the year (post-Labor Day!), consider these 10 tips for better video meetings.

#1 – Consider your audio – How clear is it? Are you using a good microphone? Is there any background noise?

#2 – Consider your lighting – When lighting is behind you your face may be shaded. It’s important to get lighting right so that you can be seen. Visual cues are key in the virtual space. Being able to read someone’s face is essential for building (and maintaining) trust. The best lighting is often created when a window is just in front of you, with muted light (I use a sunshade in my office to keep the light a little more diffuse).

#3 – Consider what visual cues will be useful – What are the elements you want to include in your meeting? What could be provided in a visual way?

#4 – What is your call to action – i.e. what do you want people to do afterwards? Make it as clear and focused as possible.

#5 – Always include a dial in number in case people have challenges accessing the call via their computer or app.

#6 – Keep to time – Don’t wait or everyone to show up because you don’t know if they will. Likewise, make sure you wrap up on time as well!

In addition to these 6 tips, always be asking the 8 Essential Virtual Meeting Questions I share in my book, Effective Virtual Conversations. The questions are:

What’s the purpose?
What takeaways do we want?
Who needs to be on the call?
What preparation is needed for us to be most effective in the meeting?
What pace do we want in order to keep it engaging?
What will help keep the focus?
What’s absolutely essential? (versus what will be nice to cover or where can people go for more information around topics?)
What follow up might be required?

Let us know what your favorite meeting tips are by sharing them over at the Virtual and Remote Visionaries Hub. You can find it here.

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2436 - Effective Virtual Conversations #165: Facilis!

8/31/2020

Welcome back to another Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week’s EVC tip is a reminder of the roots of facilitation. The word is actually derived from the Latin word - Facilis which means to make easy.

The role of the facilitator, particularly the virtual facilitator is to make things easy. That means making a focus on PROCESS easy. What’s the purpose? What can people expect? What are you doing?

Making connection EASY. As I shared earlier this month in the STAND OUT Virtually Challenge – that means connecting with the CONTEXT, with OTHERS, with YOU. What are you doing to make this easy?

Making outcomes EASY. Part of the mastery of a facilitator is having a variety of tools available to get to the outcomes required. This is where it’s important to have a wide toolkit. I’ve enjoyed helping many professionals build out their virtual toolkits this year in the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program.

Finally, it’s also about making ENGAGEMENT EASY. What are you doing to keep things moving? It’s important to be able to focus in on engagement - which is linked to connection as well as process.

What does FACILIS mean for you in your work?

Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2433 – Flashback Friday – Listening in the Remote Space

8/28/2020

This week’s Flashback Friday zeroes into an area many professionals are struggling with at the moment – Listening in the remote space. I thought that it would be a good place to explore as we start gearing up for fall. Here’s what I wrote in June 2019 – in Teams365 1981

Welcome back to another Monday Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week’s tip focuses into the skill of listening.

As both leaders and team members listening is a critical skill, particularly in the virtual space. It is important for all of us - leaders, entrepreneurs, individual contributors and team members.

Keys to listening in the virtual and remote space are to ensure that we are:

Focusing – Focusing 100% of our attention on the person who is speaking – not using other devices or focusing on other things.
Listening to the tone as well as the words. If you are streaming, what do you notice about the body language?
Listening for the pause points – What does their speed and rate of pitch say? How quickly or slowly are they speaking.

Finally, do you fall into one of the biggest pitfalls of listening today? We want to make sure that we are listening for what is really being said, rather than listening to respond. One of the greatest challenges for most professionals today is that they are so focused on figuring out what they plan to say, that they really are not listening to what is being said. What are you listening for?

I recently came across a great article by Ben Gross on the importance of listening. Here's a link to this article on listening.

It is often said that employees leave managers, not companies. What can you do to boost your listening skills? What did you notice about your last conversation?
End of Teams365 #1981 blog post

While I wrote this more than a year ago, it’s as relevant today as it was then.

Here are some more additional questions to be exploring:

What’s important to note about your listening?
What’s getting you distracted?
What’s helping you focus?
What assumptions are you making and maybe need to check out?

Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2431 – Delegation in the Digital Space

8/26/2020

Delegation is a critical part of leadership and team success. It has always been a tricky area, even before many workers moved to working virtually. What is your state of confidence and comfort with delegating, especially if you are working in the remote and virtual space?

Given that many things get MAGNIFIED in the remote space – the good, the bad and the not so great, what is important for you to focus on?

As with many items, let’s go back to the basics around delegation. Starting with the 5 Ws, consider the:

WHAT
WHY
WHEN
WHERE
WHO and
Of course, add the HOW

All of these elements are critical to discuss in the digital delegation space. Of particular note be sure to share as much as possible around the:

WHAT - What’s really needed with this task? Be clear on what the end result is and what “success will look like”. Moving back to a management by objectives framework, how many of us led pre-internet, can be useful in terms of getting granular about what’s expected?
WHY - The why around delegation often gets missed. What is important about this task? How does it fit into the bigger picture? Have you shared enough about the context? Remember, in the virtual space we often doing look “beyond the screen”. What’s important to share around this piece?
WHEN - Be sure to build in enough checkpoints for this. What are the milestones and when will you check in?

There’s a tendency to not delegate because it’s unclear what other’s may have on their plate. This is where regular communication and one-on-ones become critical for discussion.

What are the elements which are important to note around delegation in the digital space? Be sure to check out other Teams365 posts on Delegation here.

Enjoy your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2429 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 164

8/24/2020

It’s Monday which means that it’s another Effective Virtual Conversations Tip day. This week the invitation is for you to build your toolkit. If you joined me last week for the Stand Out Virtually 5 day Challenge, it’s likely that you spent time building your toolkit.

We covered visuals (and you got to built up some of your visual library). We also talked about backgrounds, along with engagement toolkits.

A quick note that I’ll be hosting the next one-day Virtual Facilitation Essentials program tomorrow, Tuesday August 25th from 9-4:30pm ET. The day is geared to get you building out your toolkit.

What do you notice about your toolkit for exceptional virtual conversations?

Whether you are an individual leading calls or an organization, it’s important that we build out our tools and practices. Consider building tools in these areas:

Planning
Opening a Program
Decision Making
Problem Solving
Consensus Generation

I’ve been spending even more time this year than usual working with organizations to build out their repertoire of virtual tools and practices. If you, or your organization, could benefit from some support and focus in this area, give me a call.

Be sure to take a look at the 163 Effective Virtual Conversations Tips I’ve written here at the blog.

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2426 – Stand Out Virtually! Recap

8/21/2020

A big thanks to those who joined me this week for the Stand Out Virtually challenge. Who had fun? Who is walking away with some practical tips you can put into practice RIGHT NOW?

It’s never been more important to be able to deliver engaging and impactful virtual conversations. It’s key for both business and results.

This week we’ve covered a range of essential virtual tips – from the 4 PERC ingredients needed in every call, to working with visuals, to boosting engagement.

What are the elements which you are going to put into practice?

I’ll be hosting another Stand Out Virtually challenge later this fall, this time focusing more on design. Be sure that you are on the mailing list! You can sign up here for this and other updates.

Interested in Virtual Calls in general? Join the LetsTalkVirtual Mailing list here.

All the best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326